Plumbing reversed on Kinetico water softener

I just purchased a home with a Kinetico water softener. The unit has arrows showing where the hard water should enter and the soft water should exit. This unit was plumbed backwards. The hard water enters on the side with the arrow pointing out from the unit. Can a water softener function in reverse? Will it damage the unit?

It will work, but not as good as it should and the meter will wish to turn the wrong way.
The upper baskets that the unit has should keep the resin from going into the house, but either way one looks at it , the plumbing needs to be changed so that the water flows through the unit like it should.

I have noticed another issue with the softener. At least once a day it pumps water down the drain (I assume this is the regeneration cycle). While it is doing this, there is no water available in the house. All faucets lose pressure and we have to wait for the softener to finish. Could this be related to the reversed plumbing, or is there another problem?

I just purchased a home with a Kinetico water softener. The unit has arrows showing where the hard water should enter and the soft water should exit. This unit was plumbed backwards. The hard water enters on the side with the arrow pointing out from the unit. Can a water softener function in reverse? Will it damage the unit?

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What type of bypass do you? Is it a Kinetico bypass with a grey handle?

Yes. I just reversed them and did the manual regeneration. While the 1st tank was regenerating, I lost all water pressure to the faucets. During regeneration of the 2nd tank, the pressure remained fine for the faucets.

I have done 3 regenerations on each side of the valve. One side loses most water pressure during the regeneration. There is a slow stream from the faucets. The other side doesn't affect water pressure at the faucets during regeneration.

What type of bypass do you? Is it a Kinetico bypass with a grey handle?

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Andy, he already answered the question two days ago... and now again last night. He has the grey Kinetico by pass valve.

Now you could have, and should have told him days ago as to why having the grey one is important to him just in case he had the grey one, instead of allowing him to mistakenly think it was plumbed backwards and to change the plumbing and it still not work right.

Andy, he already answered the question two days ago... and now again last night. He has the grey Kinetico by pass valve.

Now you could have, and should have told him days ago as to why having the grey one is important to him just in case he had the grey one, instead of allowing him to mistakenly think it was plumbed backwards and to change the plumbing and it still not work right.

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Do you want to tell me why having the grey one is important and why I mistakenly thought it was plumbed backwards?

I removed the bypass valve. The inner ring shows "inlet B." The valve handle points up away from the tanks. With this setting, does the water cross over at the bypass valve? Does that mean it was plumbed correctly and now I have reversed it? I can post a picture if it would be helpful.

I would be interestd in HOW you decided it was backwards in the first place, unless the piping is exposed and you could trace it from the meter to the IN, or OUT, port on the softener. Since Kineticos are usually ONLY installed by their professional technicians, it would be unusual for them to make that mistake. If it was, the water flowing through the mineral bed backwards could create any number of weird conditions.

I removed the bypass valve. The inner ring shows "inlet B." The valve handle points up away from the tanks. With this setting, does the water cross over at the bypass valve? Does that mean it was plcorrectly and now I have reversed it? I can post a picture if it would be helpful.

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That valve is versatile in that you can reverse the flow depending on the direction of you incoming water. From top right to left to bottom right to left you have ports A-B-C-D. On the grey handle it will say either A-C or B-C. B-C water criss-crosses and A=C is straight down. Simple remove the screw in the handle. pull off the handle and take off that ring and reverse it. This is a common mistake when people move their softener.

The newer valves can also do A-D and B-D if the mount your by-pass facing to the rear of the softener instead of the front.

Do you want to tell me why having the grey one is important and why I mistakenly thought it was plumbed backwards?

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I wish I could have but I don't know Kinetico that well; but Andy (Water Solutions) does because he's a Kinetico salesman. I did think I had heard of a Kinetico BP valve that could be reversed but I wasn't sure.

We'll see if Andy helps you more than describing the operation of the BP valve or not.

I would be interestd in HOW you decided it was backwards in the first place, unless the piping is exposed and you could trace it from the meter to the IN, or OUT, port on the softener. Since Kineticos are usually ONLY installed by their professional technicians, it would be unusual for them to make that mistake. If it was, the water flowing through the mineral bed backwards could create any number of weird conditions.

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I was incorrect that the plumbing was backwards because I didn't realize there was a crossover at the bypass valve. I can see the plumbing coming into the water softener. It comes from the direction of the shutoff valve and goes to what I now know is the B side of the Kinetico valve. The other pipe has a T with one side going to the cold inlet on the water heater and the other going off in the direction of the rest of the house.

This time I disconnected the water softener and did what I should have done the first time. I put a bucket under the pipes and turned the bypass valve to Service. That way I saw that the water was crossing over in the bypass valve. The softener is now back to being plumbed correctly.

This still doesn't solve the loss of water pressure. I will regenerate it a few times today and see if it gets any better.